Republicans celebrated Sen. John Fetterman’s (D-PA) move to break with the Democratic Party’s response to the Los Angeles anti-ICE riots.
Prominent Democrats such as former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) have characterized the protests carried out in Southern California since last Friday as mostly peaceful despite widespread violence. Others, such as Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and Rep. Norma Torres (D-CA), have accused the Trump administration of inciting the chaos and rolling over constitutional rights, with the congresswoman telling Immigration and Customs Enforcement to “get the f*** out of LA so that order can be restored.”
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Fetterman, a maverick swing-state senator long known for bucking the party line on controversial issues, took a swing at his colleagues on Monday, the same day he was spotted with Trump ally and immigration hard-liner Steve Bannon at a D.C. restaurant, per Politico.
“I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations, and immigration—but this is not that,” the Pennsylvania senator said in a post to X. “This is anarchy and true chaos. My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement.”
Trump allies were swift to praise Fetterman over his comments.
“It’s hard to preach hard truths to your own side. I respect this,” Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy replied.
Former presidential adviser Elon Musk reposted Fetterman’s statement, while deputy White House chief of staff Taylor Budowich called the senator’s comments “a wake-up call for many Democrats.”
“There is no room for you in the party of @GavinNewsom and @KamalaHarris. Their self-obsessed pursuits of power are blind to you and your concerns. They defend chaos, reject biology, and are unbothered by the invasion of our nation,” Budowich said.
The Los Angeles riots sparked over the weekend in response to an ICE sweep that targeted over 40 illegal immigrants in the area for deportation. The Los Angeles Police Department has arrested at least 50 people in connection with the protests as anti-ICE demonstrators knock the White House for its deportation agenda.
The Trump administration has rolled out thousands of National Guard members and hundreds of Marines to quell violence associated with the demonstrations.
Democrats have broadly characterized the president’s actions as authoritarian and cruel, and Newsom is suing the Trump administration for sending in the troops.
Trump has argued that if he hadn’t sent in the military to deal with “the violent, instigated riots,” Los Angeles would have been “completely obliterated.”
“The incompetent ‘Governor,’ Gavin Newscum, and ‘Mayor,’ Karen Bass, should be saying, ‘THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP, YOU ARE SO WONDERFUL. WE WOULD BE NOTHING WITHOUT YOU, SIR,’” the president said in a Monday post to Truth Social.
“Instead, they choose to lie to the People of California and America by saying that we weren’t needed, and that these are ‘peaceful protests.’ Just one look at the pictures and videos of the Violence and Destruction tells you all you have to know,” he said.
24 ARRESTED AT TRUMP TOWER AS ICE PROTESTS SPREAD BEYOND LA
Other Republicans have called for even stricter regulations on immigration in response to the protests.
“It’s time to ban third world immigration, legal or illegal,” GOP activist Charlie Kirk said Monday. “We’ve reached our limit and we have a huge cultural, educational, housing, financial, and essential services problem to fix now because of it. We need a net-zero immigration moratorium with a ban on all third worlders.”